South African government denies reports that Nelson Mandela was in a vegetative state

Updated
Fri 5 Jul 2013, 1:21 PM AEST

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Nelson Mandela remains in a stable but critical condition in hospital.

Getty Images: Chris Jackson

The South African government has denied former president Nelson Mandela was in a permanent vegetative state, as outlined in court documents filed last month.

The June 26 court filing, obtained by the AFP news agency, said doctors had advised Mr Mandela's family to turn off his life support machine a week ago.

"He is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine," lawyers said on behalf of 15 family members including his wife and three daughters.

"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off.

"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability."

Family lawyer Wesley Hayes said the document was part of an effort to have a court urgently hear a dispute over the final resting place of three of Mr Mandela's children, who have been reburied amid a fierce family dispute.

But the government and Mr Mandela's family and friends have played down the reports, noting an improvement in the condition of the ailing 94-year-old.

"We confirm our earlier statement released this afternoon after president Jacob Zuma visited Madiba in hospital that Madiba remains in a critical, but stable condition," the president's office said in a statement.

"The doctors deny that the former president is in a vegetative state."

Denis Goldberg, one of the men who was convicted with Mr Mandela, visited him this week and said he was conscious.

"He is clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him," Mr Goldberg said.

"He is definitely not unconscious," Mr Goldberg said, adding that "he was aware of who I was".

Mandela's wife says he has seldom been in pain

On the day the court document was written, president Jacob Zuma reported Mr Mandela's health had faltered and he cancelled a trip to Mozambique.

The next day the president said his condition had "improved during the course of the night".

Earlier in the day Ms Machel said that while occasionally Mr Mandela has been uncomfortable during his nearly one-month hospital stay, he has seldom been in pain.

"Now we are about 25 days we have been in hospital," she said, giving thanks for the outpouring of well wishes from around the world for the Nobel peace laureate.

"Although Madiba sometimes may be uncomfortable, very few times he is in pain," she said.

The former president, who turns 95 later this month, was rushed to hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

Grandson launches tirade over burial dispute

Mr Mandela's grandson, meanwhile, thrust the increasingly acerbic family feud over the gravesites firmly into the public eye.

Mandla Mandela launched a tirade at close family members who took him to court to force him to return the remains of the three Mandela children to the revered leader's proposed burial ground in Qunu.

Mandla accused one of his brothers of impregnating his wife and others of being born out of wedlock.

He also accused other close relatives of money grabbing.

"In the past few days I have been the target of attacks from all sorts of individuals wanting a few minutes of fame and media attention at my expense," Mandla said.

He accused Mr Mandela's daughter Makaziwe of trying to "sow divisions and destruction" in her family.

The anti-apartheid hero's ex-wife Winnie, who has regularly visited him in hospital, "has no business in the matters of the Mandelas", Mandla added.

Mandla, however, said he would not fight a court order to move the remains of his father, uncle and aunt from his estate in Mvezo - the eastern village where he is overseeing large-scale development as the local traditional chief - back to nearby Qunu, Mr Mandela's childhood home.

The three bodies were exhumed Wednesday after a sheriff forced open the gates of Mandla's estate with a pickaxe to allow three hearses to enter the property.

The graves were moved in 2011, allegedly without the family's consent.